We arrived in Israel last night (after a bit of a delay in JFK from the weather) and immediately headed south to the city of Dimona, where we are spending the next three nights. This morning began with a meeting with Meir Chazan, the head of culture and youth for the city. He gave us a brief history of the city and the neighborhood in which we'd be working.

We spent the day working outside a community center. It is in an area of town that was once one of the worst parts of the city. A couple of years ago, members of the community chose to clean up the neighborhood and create a better place to live.

We had several different work projects. Some of us cleaned out, flattened, and cemented an area that will now be a stage for children's plays. Some of us painted outdoor storage areas, according to the four seasons. We're only nervous that the Israeli children will be a little confused with our "winter" season. I don't think they've ever seen a real snow man.

We also removed uneven ground tiles, flattened the ground and repaved the area. We weeded, cleaned and totally transformed a totally run down, unusable park area into a place where children can play and enjoy.

The day was organized by the municipality of Dimona and an organization called Ayalim. We worked side by side with its members, young college students from Ben Gurion University who have decided to live in Dimona in a youth village. Their goal is to expose young Israelis to life in the Negev and to volunteer is the communities in which they are living to help improve the lives of the residents.

After we finished our work and had a brief hour to shower and change we went to Yerucham, another development town. There, we met with Mayor Amram Mitzna.  He is the former mayor of Haifa.  He told us about the challenges Israel faces internally in developing these towns and making them good places to live.

The day has been pretty long and it's still not over.  We are heading out soon for dinner at the youth village.

Bus 1 Highs!

-         “I have never felt like I worked so hard and accomplished so much in one day”

-         “It was amazing to stand on top of the highest building (approximately 15 feet) and look down in amazement at the work we were doing”

-         “We wish we could have a video of the kids faces when they see what we built (the new stage)”

-         The “worker’s” lunch

-         “Having the whole group together finally (our 9 delayed at JFK friends finally joined us)

-         Hot Israeli guide (the Americans are okay too)

Bus 1 Lows!

-         Fighting with ElAl pilot to get him to fly to Israel

-         Nicking the pipe and watching water explode all over bus 2’s Israeli guide